Tunnels in Nexus
by Ninjustupower
Summary: Ultimate Ninja happens to stumble upon some mysterious tunnels, but are they JUST tunnels? Or is there a deeper meaning?


In the darkest of nights, the winds blew through the ancient mounds of earth, causing dust particles to fly around and be transported to a chamber, the death chamber. The dust landed smoothly in a white hand, the being looked at the particles closely, before clenching his fist tightly. Reducing them to nothing at all. He then blew at the dust until the wind cradled them once again, and so now they began there long journey with the winds of the earth.

Ghostly yet handsome figures dressed in royalty began emerging out of the shadows. All their faces showed no emotion except for the ghost who had blown upon the dust; his face was a mixture of pride and unhappiness.

"The time has come, all is ready".

"Yes, he shall find what he's looking for", a deep voice agreed to the first one that spoke.

"Then all it settled, it shall occur today" the first manly ghost spoke with confidence.

All the spirits bowed their heads, and walked away silently.

* * *

Night engulfed the Battle Nexus. It kept growing darker and darker, later and later. The palace stood outlined against the originally amethyst sky, but soon it too started to take shape with the oncoming darkness.

Inside the palace, a young man about in his early twenties sat on his windowsill; he suppressed a sigh as he kept looking out the window, his green eyes staring into the ever-present darkness; his mind began to cloud with evil desire, thoughts, and confusion. He started to ponder if he'd ever become the supreme Daimyo of the Battle Nexus. It just seemed like his father would live forever! His father was already a very elderly man, but his son was young and inexperienced, the man didn't know what to think. Though recently he had been getting thoughts about killing his father secretly and taking his place. But even though he and his father had become distant from one another in the past couple of years, the Ninja still loved and respected his father very much. The Ninja knew his father loved him to some extent, but to what extent he was unsure of. The Ninja thought about this for a moment, he too loved his father but not as much as he use too. His father had lied to him, because like every parent he thought it was the best to keep some secrets hidden from his son; eventually, all secrets are revealed. But in the young ninja's case it wasn't the best. He found out the truth, it was like a huge boulder of lies crushing all the truth and weighing down on the ninja, putting everything he ever learned to question.

The man directed his attention away from the outside, he stood up and walked over to his bed and flopped down. His green eyes staring hopelessly at the ceiling. He turned over onto his right side and closed his eyes; he didn't feel like sleeping, he just felt like thinking. Suddenly, a noise disrupted his peaceful atmosphere; his door burst open and in came the palace guards. Immediately, the Ninja shot out of his bed and ran toward them, he needed to know what was going on, for it was obvious something was terribly wrong.

"Sire", the leader of the guards said to the ninja as he bowed respectfully.

"Tell me what in the world is going on! NOW!" The Ninja demanded since they really had sent his heart racing.

"Well sire, while we were out on patrol, we stumbled upon… something I don't know what it was. But I could tell it was something that wasn't meant for us to see, but the most important thing my lord"- he stopped as he kneeled in front of his master.

"The most crucial thing was that it had _your _name on it my lord", the guard concluded while trembling a little.

The young man quirked in eyebrow in surprise. "Really? Are you sure it wasn't just a trap by the Outsiders?" The Ninja questioned.

"To be honest, I am not sure, my lord Ultimate Ninja, but we could go check it out if you please", the guard offered politely.

The man known as the "Ultimate Ninja" gave a quick, curt nod.

The group was getting their battle attire on, so they could explore the tunnels they had seen. As soon as all of them were ready, Ultimate Ninja gave the command and everyone marched off. They walked till the soldiers directed the Ultimate Ninja to the place. The place that would change Ultimate Ninja's life forever. With each step Ultimate Ninja took, he began to become more fearful, just this whole tunnel thing, the way the guards had explained it, how their voices shook with fear, though they had tried to hide it…was just…eerie. Ultimate Ninja quickly snapped back into reality as the guards announced that they had reached the spot. Ultimate Ninja gulped as he took a step closer, then he started to hear voices. "Come in". "Welcome young one". Ultimate Ninja carefully narrowed his eyes at this, there was something wrong about this, but he felt as if his destiny was somehow entwined with those tunnels, something beyond the Ninja's comprehension. Ultimate Ninja obtained a deep breath as he wheeled around to face his soldiers.

"My fellow soldiers, I have decided that I will go into these mysterious passageways that you have discovered. I do not know what fate awaits me there," Ultimate Ninja spoke. The Ninja's guards were just starring at their leader, bewildered with amazement.

"But we cannot just leave our master! That would go against the code of Bushido!" A guard objected.

"And wouldn't go against the 'Code of Bushido' if you didn't obey your master's orders?" Ultimate Ninja shot back.

"But-"

"All of you go back to the palace and me to handle this!" Ultimate Ninja snapped suddenly.

"Master, we-" Ultimate Ninja rapidly rushed towards the guards and grabbed him by the throat while pointing a sword at his neck. "You will NOT say a single word of this to my father, do you understand?" Ultimate Ninja ordered while squeezing the guard's jugular tighter and tighter. The rest of his guards looked startled at this sight, even when they did, the Ultimate Ninja kept his grip on his victim. He then leaned enough close enough to whisper in his ear, "Promise me on your word of honor that you or your fellow warriors will tell no one of this, promise me", Ultimate Ninja whispered.

"I-I…promise", the guard sputtered out, his eyes wide with fear.

"On your word of honor?"

"On my word of honor", the guard confirmed.

"Very well," with that, Ultimate Ninja released the guard, and he watched him and his troops walk away. But Ultimate Ninja couldn't help but notice that the guards were fighting the urge to run, the Ultimate Ninja couldn't help but to smirk a bit. _That is good. Perhaps they will fear me more now, _Ultimate Ninja thought to himself.

His thoughts were shifted as he heard a loud breeze blowing from somewhere; he looked down and saw it was coming from those tunnels. The Ninja closed his eyes and tensed his muscles, he knew he had to go in there; he had to know what was there, and why his guards had found this place. He took one deep breath as he was getting ready to jump in. Just one nanosecond before his jump, some stairs suddenly appeared leading to those passageways. _How odd. _Nevertheless, the ninja placed one foot on the step and began descending into this unknown place. As soon as he was fully inside, Ultimate Ninja picked up a scent…a scent of death…

Ultimate Ninja paused in his tracks, _what was this place? Some type of graveyard? _He pushed aside the thought, for he would eventually find out anyway.

The tunnels were deep, long, eerie, and dark. There weren't any bats or even a trace of life for that matter. Ultimate Ninja was sure no humans had lived here, not live ones anyways. Ultimate Ninja guessed that this cave had probably been around a long time, perhaps centuries? But what was the purpose for these catacombs? If they were here, that means they were used for something, whether it be good or bad.

Ultimate Ninja stopped in his tracks and the air began to smell worse; he looked before him and saw that there were 6 different tunnels ahead of him, which one should he choose?

After one minute of thinking, he decided to choose the forth one on the right. Carefully walking towards it, the Ninja saw that there was some writing on it, in Latin, thankfully, the Ninja knew some Latin from his earlier studies. The inscription read:

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here".

These words sent chills throughout the Ultimate Ninja's entire body, and he stepped back abruptly, utterly shocked. There was clearly something here that he shouldn't see, but the Ninja ignored his gut-feelings and let his ambitions take hold of him. The Ultimate Ninja was willing to risk his life and see what was there; he had never had this chance before and wanted to take advantage of this adventurous situation. The Ultimate Ninja took a deep breath and braced himself for what he was about to see…

Entering the room, the Ninja slowly saw only dim light, luckily; he had brought a stick with and a couple of matches so he could create a torch. Swiftly striking the match and stick together, he created a burning torch which enabled him to see everything.

Once everything was lit and revealed, the Ultimate Ninja was very confused. For there in front of him was a big shelf-like structure, and on it, were lots of drawers. On each drawer there was a name written in Japanese. And there was also something like a timeline on each one.

Ultimate Ninja stepped closer to examine them more thoroughly, he squinted his eyes so they could read the tiny Japanese _Kanji. _After carefully reading each one, Ultimate Ninja took a small step back and began to rethink what he had just read. All of the names were indeed Asian, and all timelines differed, they were arranged from oldest to most recent. Ultimate Ninja's eyes darted back towards the shelf, there was one drawer missing, closing his eyes, Ultimate Ninja repeated all these names to himself, suddenly, a realization dawned on his like the emblem of Japan's rising sun. These were all names of the past Daimyos of the Battle Nexus and Japan! But all except for one, Tokugawa Ieyasasu, he was the greatest Daimyo of all, he had conquered every other Daimyo during his time, he had fought great battle and won great victories. But his drawer was missing. A thought popped into the Ninja's head, _what exactly did these drawers contain anyway?_

Cautiously extending his hand, the Ninja's fingers curled around the hinge of the drawer, he pulled it out, inside was a head…

The young Ninja jumped back, startled at what he had just seen. He glanced back at the head again; did these drawers all contain heads of past Daimyos? Excluding Tokugawa's? Why wasn't Tokugawa's there? Had he died elsewhere? What had happened?

Ultimate Ninja knew that unless he found a book or some kind of ancient record, he questions would forever remain unanswered; he closed the drawer. Turning his attention to another chamber, the Ninja made out the outline of what appeared to be an ax. The man peered closer, and held his torch nearer in order to see what was there. When it was all lit up, Ultimate Ninja's face grew solemn- this was an executioner's place. The man stared at the great axel; he ran his fingers along its rim. He pulled them away seconds later, for trickles of blood began to flow down his fingers. Ultimate Ninja was taken aback, he had _barely _touched it and yet it _still _cut him. _But isn't this hundreds of years old? _The Ninja thought, but this one looked new, almost as if it had been changed recently. The Ninja turned his head in another direction to look around a little more, and in the distance he saw the outline of something that resembled an ax. He walked towards and unsheathed his sword and began scraping away the dirt and debris which covered the ancient relic. He stopped at once, there was no need for further investigation, it was clear as day that this was the original axel, and that someone had changed it _very _freshly. But why? Were they (whoever they were) going to kill someone else?

The Ninja felt his brow crease into a frown; it was obvious these tunnels had been here for quite some time, but then how come no one ever mentioned them to him? How come they weren't it the history books of the Nexus?

Ultimate Ninja had too many questions and very little answers, and he needed answers more than anything right now.

He took one last look at this chamber and scurried off to the next one, hoping to find some ancient scrolls, at least they might explain something?

The room was dim, the air was musty and damp, and there was dust everywhere you could like. There were also tons of scrolls as there were dust particles. It would take forever to look through them all! But this wasn't going to stop the Ultimate Ninja from searching; he wanted answers- he wanted them NOW!

He started rummaging through the scrolls, looking closely at each one, but was much as he looked and looked, he found no information that interested him. Frustrated, the Ninja grabbed a scroll and ripped it to bits. This day was just pathetic! He hadn't found anything that would provide him with the answers he needed, and he hadn't figured out the purpose of those tunnels, the only fact he knew was that they were some type of burial chamber for the deceased Daimyos. Then why was there a slaughter chamber as well? Did they kill Daimyos here? If they did so, why did they do it? Did each Daimyo have a certain time-limit to live?

The Ultimate Ninja felt as if a stone was lodged in his throat, what if these predictions were true? Then how long would he have to live before he too was slaughtered?

As if hearing his question and answering it, a book suddenly appeared out of nowhere, it was completely golden, with the Nexus "eye symbol" on its cover.

Ultimate Ninja stood where he was, bewildered, it had just materialized in front of his eyes, clearly this place held magic to itself along with mysterious and ever-present darkness.

Ultimate Ninja approached the book warily, not knowing what might occur next.

He reached forth towards the book, his hand made soft contact with it as he opened it, he looked at the wrinkly old paper, and the rips and creases on the pages. The pages were drenched in dust; the Ninja had to blow it away. When the contents were finally revealed, this is what it read:

"Each Daimyo had a certain timeline to live. For when each Daimyo was born, the spirit of the past Daimyo came to the father of the newly born Daimyo and foretold the timeline to him. But this was never told to the son of the Daimyo, only the father, but the father Daimyo himself didn't even know his own time to die either. When it came time for a Daimyo's death, an assassin was hired to put poison in the Daimyo's drink, and thus, he died. The Daimyo's corpse is later carried to the tunnels, where they bury his body but preserve his head. But there shall be a Daimyo that shall avoid this dreadful fate and gain immortality, but someone else shall be paying the price for him".

Ultimate Ninja snapped the book shut, even though there was still tons of information to be read, he didn't want to know anymore. His head was already buzzing with questions, thoughts, and predictions, if he read more his head would literally burst!

The Ninja took the book and clutched it tightly; he was taking this with him for future reference. He would need to find out this one very important question, _what happened to Tokugawa and WHERE is he now?_

Exiting out of that room he came right into the treasury room. The Ninja's mouth gaped in awe at the priceless, beautiful gems and jewelry. He never knew the Nexus had such riches, for he did have quite a few gems, but he never had seen this. This was probably the riches of the deceased Daimyos in these chambers, it was best not to get near a dead one's possessions. The Ninja took one better look, turned his heel, and headed upward.

After a few minutes, he stepped out into fresh air again he savored every bit of it. He then began making his way back to the palace, and he felt dark emotions clouding his every thought. _Why had not his father told him about these tunnels? Did his father think him unworthy? How dare his father lie to him! His father had told him that he could be Daimyo as long as he wished, that was now proven false. _

Clenching his fist, Ultimate Ninja felt a shadowy hatred begin to well-up inside him. A smirk slid across his face, and he walked off into the distance.


End file.
